Sydney Aquarium Interactive Experience
This is an ongoing University project with a strong research focus. Presently in the ideation/protoyping stage we are focusing on creating an interactive digital, physical & tangible solution to engage the Young Adult audience (18-25 years). Our research has conclusively shown that they find the Aquarium to be a boring, static & purely visual experience. We are seeking to change that!
UX Design
My role: UX Research, Ideation, Prototyping, Illustrations (with Yida)
Co-collaborators: Yida Tan, Keegan Haugh, Jason Moisiadis
Qualitative Research
To gather our qualitative research we used a methodology called "Context Mapping." This involves running intensive generative group sessions with the aim of unlocking key user insights and latent knowledge.
To do this we created and distributed a sensitising booklet which the participants were required to complete before the sessions. We worked with 10 young adults over the course of two different sessions.
Data Analysis
Our qualitative data was analysed through the creation of an affinity diagram. Here is a small sample of the diagram we created:
Research Insights
Once our data was analysed and we had our research insights, we created an infographic to clearly display our user needs:
Ideation
From the research it was clear that the Aquarium's lack of interaction was one of the considerable reasons why Young Adults found it to be a boring experience. We chose to focus on creating an interactive solution that connected them to the Aquarium's marine exhibit and met the Aquarium's educational and conservationist goals. We utilised a number of ideation exercises to generate our ideas and then individually created a user storyboard for 2 of our stronger ideas. Here are mine:
Interaction through Narrative
Idea 1
My first idea utilises a narrative approach to creative interactive experiences between the Aquarium visitors and the marine exhibit on display. Here the visitors are introduced to a dramatic story and are tasked with solving it using clues. These clues force the users to interact with the existing marine life on display through an Augmented Reality App on the users own phone. The clues also implicitly require the user to gain some information about marine animals that relates to the educational and conservationist goals of the Aquarium.
Interaction through Gamification
Idea 2
My second idea strongly employs gamification to create a fun and engaging interactions between the Aquarium visitors and the aquatic exhibit. Here the users are tasked with ‘creating the best Aquarium.’ To do so they are put in charge of the marine animals that they need to collect to make this become a reality. For this to occur the users must use the gamification App which is based on Augmented Reality (AR) technology. Check out the storyboard to find out more!